Deciding Fate
by Evelyn08
Summary: Bella's life is turned into a mess of chaotic emotions when she learns her family history when researching a homework assignment and has to make the ultimate decision on her mortality


**AN: I'm not a stranger to and after reading the different stories that people have put out about _Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse _and what could possibly happen in _Breaking Dawn_ or what _Midnight Sun_ will be like and learned that they can be as far fetched or near to the storyline that Stephenie Meyer has created I've decided to try my hand at writing my own story. I know I'm not Stephenie Meyer and nor do I claim to be, so with that "_I do not own any of the Stephenie Meyer characters"_, so here's my story...**

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Everyday is the same in Effingham. The same cold gray stone that marks every historic building. Every red brick house of the mindless drones that live here in Effingham. I made it a point this this summer when my dad forced me to move from my comforts of the city to this small quintessential town, where the sun never seemed to touch any crevice or ally way making things that much more creepier here in this forsaken town, to hate it here. I didn't even care that my dad had to write another novel and this seemed to be the perfect muse for the setting of his latest novel.

I remember all to well the events that spiraled my world to this little town in the boon-docks of nowhere. My dad had received a call from his editor, Mrs. Brown, from the Little Brow Publishing Company, telling him that it was time for him to come out of the shadows and write another novel. I knew what my dad did for a living and it never bothered me, so what if he was a renowned horror novelist, he was just my dad and right now he's my least favorite person.

Its been so many weeks and my attempts to try and stay in this old Victorian house situated in the middle of the woods, all day were starting to wear me down. But what am I supposed to do, everything is like hundreds of miles from civilization…okay so I'm exaggerating just a bit but everything here isn't walking distance away. In the mood for some small hope for a chance to escape this forestry prison, I volunteered myself to get enrolled in the local high school, Edison, if it can even be called local when everyone lives like twenty-seven miles from the school.

When I finally was able to locate the school, I was in a sour mood. As I parked the outlandish car that my dad thought would make-up for causing me to leave behind my perfect life back in the city, I stormed into the main office and in the kindest voice that I could muster through gritted teeth, I asked for the necessary forms I needed to fill out. Once I'd finished giving my self carpel tunnel syndrome in my wrist, I handed back the filled out papers and left with a resolve to just make it through my senior year with no incidents.

When school finally let in, I was like an instant celebrity. What was it about the new kid that everyone needs to try and get there're two cents in, by lunch I was ready to ditch school, but thank heavens there was at least Christian, the one sane person here who it seemed hadn't read any of my fathers books, or at least had enough manners not to ask about it. I clicked right away with her in my honor English class when we were reviewing gothic tales.

The only homework that was assigned to us was to research some haunting tales that were associated with our small town that was due the following Monday. When Mr. Stupor, asked us to do this for homework I nearly cracked up laughing. What if anything scary could have happened here in this boring little town. Did someone die of bored-um? I chuckled at my own thought. I was coming up blank and I didn't even get paired with Christian so that she could help me, instead I got paired with some strange guy named, Drake, who seemed like he could belong in one of my dad's horror novels.

Time flew by surprisingly fast here in this little town. It was already Friday and Mr. Stupor was reminding us that we were to research haunting tales associated with our town. I couldn't believe it, I was still coming up with a blank. Giving up on the internet, seeing on how it wasn't much use since it kept saying that Effingham didn't even exist, I decided that I was going to have to make a trip to the small town library.

Saturday morning did nothing to help my resolve when I realized that ominous gray clouds hung low in the sky rumbling with the threat of rain. Skipping breakfast I drove quickly to the library. When I got there I went straight to the librarians desk and explained to her Mr. Stupors assignment. When I was finished, she led me to a small room in the back and pulled out a bunch of old newspapers for me to go through. Understanding that I wasn't just going to be told what I would have liked to hear I turned my attention to the mountainous stack of old newspapers, and got to work separating them by year, then date.

After hours of searching newspapers I just about gave up. But I still had the year of 1872 to go through. So I went back to work. It didn't take long before I found something similar to what I was looking for. The headline read, 'Montez Family mysteriously disappears from their home', and another shortly after the previous news headline, 'Family Returns', and then another two decades later reading, 'Eyewitness claims that she saw mysterious man flee the Montez home', then the last one, this one dated eight decades later with a photo of a family that looked almost identical to the family once missing, reads, 'Decedents of Mysteriously lost family return back to Effingham'. Something didn't seem right, but the library was closing so I just copied the articles that I'd found, and took pictures of the pictures in the articles before I'd left.

That Monday when I got to my English class I wanted to hear if any of the other students were going to bring up the mysterious family, but none did. So when it was Drake and my turn to reveal our haunting tale, I was surprised that he'd started speaking before I even had a chance to start my theory that the two families were actually one an the same.

"Our haunting tale is the one about the psychiatric ward down by the old cemetery, where they say that down in the basement there's the gateway to hell." Drake said in almost a bored voice.

When the bell rung signaling the end of the day I decided that I wanted to ask Drake why we didn't go with my idea, since I'd done some extensive research and I wanted our story to be something original, I don't know why it bothered me so much that none of the students mentioned anything about that family. That's when I realized why I couldn't get the family out of my head and especially one particular member. Drake was the guy standing besides what looked like his father and mother in both pictures.

When I got home that day I uploaded the pictures that I'd taken of the ones in the article and magnified the picture of Drake. Sure enough it was him. It was like nothing had changed, except the year, and the style of clothing. Deciding that it might just be a coincidence, I mean a lot of people look like their family members right, I looked like my mom. That night I had a restless sleep, so when I woke up in the morning I wasn't surprised to see that I'd slept though the morning. Deciding that it was too late to go to school, and seeing as how my dad was too busy writing his book, I stayed home and did more of my own research.

I quickly dressed and decided that the best place that I was going to get some answers were if I went back to the old Montez house. Deciding that it would be a bad idea just drive around blind I called the Effingham directory. A lady with a high pitch voice answered.

"How can I help you today?" her voice squealed, reminding me of nails being scratched against a chalkboard.

"I need directions to the Old Montez house", I said trying to disguise my voice.

"Well, if you take the I-10 to the one-oh-one, the road will end and from there you'll follow up the tree lined road and keep driving until you see the house." he voice scratched at my eardrums causing them to retreat in pain.

"Thank you", I managed to say without sounding unpleasant.

By the time I reached the house I realized that it had never occurred to me to see if anybody lived there. The house looked well taken care of so when I cut the engine to my car and walked around to the back of the house to see if there was anyway in I was startled to see that I'd run into the very person who in the back of my head I was hoping didn't live here to confirm my suspicions. Drake was standing there with a bemused expression across his face.

"What are you doing here?" I almost yelled accusingly.

"I could sat the same about you, sneaking around _my home_" his voice rang in me head at the last two words.

"I wanted to find out the truth about the family that supposedly disappeared, and of course I wanted to test theory."

His face twisted a bit, but was composed as quickly as I had blinked.

"What theory?" he said inquiringly, "and I'd gladly show you the house to find what ever truth there is to find?"

"Show me the house before I tell you any theories" my voice almost cracked but I managed to get what I wanted to say out before I did.

"As you wish, but I'm warning you know that once you enter a part of you might never leave."

As we started around the house back to the front. I noticed how he suddenly tensed, as he entered the front door. I wanted to ask but the suspense to find out the truth was gnawing at the insides of my stomach. So when I passed the threshold of the door a sudden eeriness came over me like a part of my mind was screaming, _turn around you fool and get out before its to late_, but my feet were still taking me forward. As I continued to follow Drake through the house, I finally realized why I shouldn't be there. It wasn't that my theory was wrong, but something about the house felt all wrong. Like I'd been here before. Then déjà vu punched me in the stomach, I was here in my dream. The dream that kept popping in my head every time I closed my eyes. So it startled me when I saw that Drake had the expression of pain in his eyes. Like he knew something that I wasn't quite getting at.

Finally when I got my feet to listen to my brain and I started to shuffle out the front door. I knew that my first intentions for coming here were not why I wanted to leave but because I knew that if I stayed I'd learn things I didn't want to know. I felt an iron grip close around my wrist. When I turned to look it wasn't Drake, but the man that stood next to him in the pictures, the man that stood beside my father in his wedding photo. His father, a man that for 18 years I thought my uncle, was preventing me from leaving.

"Let me go, Charles!" I demanded.

"Now, now Isabella, is that anyway to treat family." his voice rang through my struggling.

"Is this anyway to treat family?" I seethed and gestured towards my wrist.

"Your right," he chuckled, then let go of me.

"Does my father know that your older than you really seem to be, over a century older than what you should be?"

He laughed lightly before answering me, "Your father's the one that made me what I am." Then walking to the bookshelf nearest me, he pulled down what looked like memory book. Inside were all the newspaper articles I'd already seen. But then something else caught my eye. A picture of my mom in the most beautiful gown imaginable was smiling radiantly back at me.

"Where did you get this?" I mumbled.

"Your father asked me to save it for him. Told me that if you were to ever some here trying to find answers about your mother, or him, or us" he waved his had around to Drake and the woman that came out of nowhere. "but he's still alive, which leads me to believe that you just happened to stumble across here. In which case I'll call your father to explain." he was gone in a flash.

I continued to stare at my mother in the picture. So when he returned I was surprised to find that he was accompanied be my father. Instinctively I went to him and allowed all the questions to pour out.

"What is going on here dad? What is he talking about?" I nodded my head in the direction of Charles. "What's with this book? What does the articles have to do with you, and mom?"

"I guess its time that you learned the truth, Bella. It was wrong of me to keep you from the truth for so long, especially now that I've come back here." there was a sadness in his voice that threw me off. "I guess I should start from the beginning. I haven't always been this way, a vampire, but shortly after I'd graduated from college, I went to some party. That's when I was changed. After finally accepting what I was I decided that I needed to get away from civilization at least until I could control the thirst. Discovering that I could feed on other things, I came back. Fast forwarding to when that first article came out. With so much time on my hands I was able to try out several different careers. At that time I was posing as a doctor. So when I came into the hospital, I found your mother dying. She was only three months along with you and I couldn't bear to see her die. Her eyes, they pulled me in, I fell in love with her, at the time there were no computers or proper filing to I stole her away back to my home and changed her. Not sure what would happen to you, but at least I could save one of you. She killed Charles family so we had to hide them. Keep them in the shadows until they learned how to control the hunger before we allowed them to leave us." I hadn't realized that that part made me cry.

"Don't cry Bella." he said in a soothing voice, but continued. "she was grateful, she thought that I had managed to save you. But when she realized that you would never come to meet her, she instantly wanted me to reverse the change I made in her. But you see I couldn't, I didn't know how. After years of trying to find a way, I guess she gave up and I think that my efforts made her fall in love with me. So we married. There at the wedding I made her promise me that if I ever found a way that would change her back I wanted her to go back and live a better life then the one we had together. She was reluctant at first but agreed.

"It was in 1953, that I'd finally started to make a breakthrough. So I asked Charles if he would come back and keep an eye on things for me here. I needed to get some things other things straightened out. But finally in early 1989, I changed your mother back. She wanted me to promise that I would change her back as soon as you'd come out but I convinced her that you needed her human in your early years, so she consented to staying human for you. She never imagined that seven years after you were born that you would look nothing like your father, but you carried my livid green eyes, pale skin and dark black hair, but you carried her features. It was a mystery to us. She knew that I was procrastinating her change, but I loved her to much to give her a life of eternal damnation, especially when I coveted something that wasn't mine to take. She had the choice to walk away at any point from there, and I wouldn't stop her. And you know the rest." he said, unable to restrain the tremor in his voice.

"Why?" I said in a whisper

"I think you should know the truth, it's what your mother would have wanted for you." then in a sigh said, "I'm giving you a choice, to stay and be one of us or continue a human life."

I had a choice I needed to make. What was the right one. Eternal life with my vampire father or eventual death where I can meet my mother.

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**AN: I'm not going to expect reviews to put out another chapter, its going to be based on how quickly I can create my story without losing the plot that I want to take the story. **


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